A-level results were released in England today, following the first formal exams to be held since 2019, revealing an expected decrease in the proportion of top A* grades, as well as a decrease in the proportion achieving A*-C grades compared with last year.

Exams were cancelled in 2021 for the second consecutive year and students were awarded teacher-assessed grades, leading to grade inflation.

But this year, exams returned with mitigations put in place to help students who had their learning disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, including advance information topics and exam aids such as formulae and equation sheets.

Here are the headline figures this year:

Top A* grades fall but are almost double those achieved in 2019

Overall, 14.5 per cent of entries achieved the top grade of an A*, compared with 19.1 per cent last year, while 35.9 per cent of entries achieved an A or A* grade, compared with 44.3 per cent in 2021.

The percentage achieving the top A* grade this year was almost double the number in 2019, when 7.7 per cent of entries achieved A* overall.

A* rates decreased by 4.6 percentage points from 2021 and A*-A rates decreased by 8.4 percentage points from last year.

There was also a fall in the proportion of A*-C grades awarded, with 82.1 per cent of entries achieving this compared with 88.2 per cent in 2021.

The pass rate (A*-E) was slightly down this year compared with 2021 - 98.4 per cent of entries achieved this compared with 99.5 per cent in 2021. 

However, it remained higher than the 2019 figure of 97.6 per cent.

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Results by gender

Girls continued to achieve higher attainment than boys for the third year running.

At the top grade, 14.7 per cent of girls were awarded A*, compared with 14.3 per cent for boys.

In 2019, the last year in which exams went ahead, 8.1 per cent of entries from boys achieved an A*, compared with 7.3 per cent for girls.

Girls achieved 22.2 per cent of A grades, a decrease of 4.5 percentage points compared with 2021, while boys achieved 20.4 per cent - a 2.9 percentage-point decrease compared with 2021.

And 47 per cent of girls achieved a B-C grade this year, compared with 45.3 per cent of boys.

Sciences

All science subjects saw a fall in the proportion of top grades compared with 2021, but the number of top grades achieved was still significantly higher than pre-pandemic exam results in 2019.

In biology, 33.8 per cent of entries gained an A or A*, compared with 44.1 per cent in 2021 and 23.5 per cent in 2019.

And 38 per cent gained an A or A* in chemistry, compared with 47.6 per cent the previous year and 28.4 per cent in 2019.

In physics, 38.5 per cent gained the two top grades compared with 46.1 per cent in 2021 and 27.5 per cent in 2019.

Sciences entries were slightly down on 2021, with 155,693 entered for biology, chemistry and physics this year, compared with 155,857 last year - a decrease of 0.1 per cent.

Biology entries were up by 2.9 per cent, physics down by 2.6 per cent and chemistry down by 1.8 per cent.

There has been an overall increase in A-level entries for the summer 2022 series compared with last year, with an increase of 3.5 per cent to 329,000.

Arts

Entries for art and design are up to 41,737, compared with 39,293 last year.

And 18.7 per cent received A*s, compared with 21.5 per cent in 2021 and 12.2 per cent in 2019.

In drama, 8,923 entered this year, up from 8,640 in 2021.

Of these entries, 14.9 per cent received an  A*, compared with 20.4 per cent in 2021 and 4.3 per cent in 2019.

Languages

German had the highest proportion of A* grades this year, with 26.6 per cent achieving top grades compared with 34.1 per cent in 2021 and 12.1 per cent in 2019.

In total, 20.1 per cent of entries in French scored an A*, compared with 26.4 per cent in 2021 and 9.7 per cent in 2019.

But it was Spanish that saw the largest decrease, with 22.5 per cent of grades awarded an A* compared with 34.1 in 2021 and 10 per cent in 2019.

Language entries were down: overall, there were 18,489 entries for French, Spanish and German in 2022.

Spanish continued to be the most popular MFL A level, with 8,496 entries in 2022. There were 7,347 entries for French and German had 2,646 entries, compared with 2,507 last year.

English and maths

There were small decreases in top A* grades in English and maths compared with last year: 16.5 per cent compared with 20 per cent last year for English and 22.8 per cent compared with 28.3 per cent in 2021 for maths.

This also compared with 8.6 per cent in English in 2019 and 16.3 per cent in maths in the same year.

The number of entries for English literature fell to 32,485 compared with 35,977 last year.

Yesterday, Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said there was “severe concern” over the continuing decline in the number of students taking English literature at A level. 

His comments came after the provisional entries for English literature A level, which were published in May, revealed that 32,910 students were entered for the qualification in summer 2022, down from 36,135 in summer 2021.

Entries for maths have fallen to 88,316 compared with 90,290 last year.

And 22.8 per cent were A*s, compared with 28.3 per cent in 2021 and 16.3 per cent in 2019.

Humanities

Geography saw a rise in entries once again, rising from 31,803 in 2021 to 33,927 this year.

Meanwhile, in history, 12.1 per cent received A* grades, a fall from 16 per cent in 2021 but a jump on 2019 levels when 4.9 per cent received the top grade.